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While artists speaking out against music piracy is nothing new, a formidable collection of UK music stars are urging British Prime Minister David Cameron to take action in the matter.

In a letter published by the Telegraph, Elton John, Robert Plant, Simon Cowell, the surviving members of The Who and Queen, Andrew Lloyd-Webber and more ask the prime minister to protect Britain’s thriving creative industries through legislation against piracy. The group name-checks Adele and claims that England’s arts sector “creates jobs at twice the speed of the rest of the economy” of the country. Thus, they say, Cameron should feel motivated update the country’s Digital Economy Act 2010 with provisions that require internet providers and search engines like Google to “protect consumers and creators from illegal sites” (ie, block file-sharing websites).

Read the full text of the letter below.

SIR – As the world’s focus turns to Britain, there is an opportunity to stimulate growth in sectors where Britain has a competitive edge. Our creative industries represent one such sector, which creates jobs at twice the speed of the rest of the economy.

Britain’s share of the global music market is higher than ever with British artists, led by Adele, breaking through to global stardom. As a digitally advanced nation whose language is spoken around the world, Britain is well-positioned to increase its exports in the digital age. Competition in the creative sector is in talent and innovation, not labour costs or raw materials.

We can only realise this potential if we have a strong domestic copyright framework, so that British creative industries can earn a fair return on their huge investments creating original content. Illegal activity online must be pushed to the margins. This will benefit consumers, giving confidence they are buying safely online from legal websites.

The simplest way to ensure this would be to implement the long-overdue measures in the Digital Economy Act 2010; and to ensure broadband providers, search engines and online advertisers play their part in protecting consumers and creators from illegal sites.

We are proud of our cultural heritage and believe that we, and our sector, can play a much bigger role in supporting British growth. To continue to create world beating creative content, we need a little bit of help from our friends.